xllV. POOLE HARBOUR. 



that Mr. Blackett was a very old friend of the Field Club, 

 who had helped them on many occasions. 



Re-embarking in the boats, which had come round Pachin's 

 Point from Russel Quay, the Club resumed the journey for 

 Ower Quay. The motor launches were able to proceed in a 

 fairly direct course ; but the tugs drew so much water that 

 it was necessary for them to steam along the Wych Channel 

 and right round Brownsea Island and up the South Deep or 

 " Sou' Deep " Channel to the Ower Passage. This took a 

 longer time, but the detour gave the passengers one of the 

 finest and most exhilarating experiences of the day. 



On landing at Ower Quay the party took tea, after which 

 Mr. WILFRED PARKINSON CURTIS, F.E.S., kindly gave an 

 address on " The Birds of Poole Harbour." 



He considered the black-headed gull was an easy first, and estimated the 

 colony close to Ower at about 2,000 pairs. He also referred to the colony at 

 Littlesea, and the attempt the birds made to establish themselves at Brown- 

 sea, which attempt was frustrated by the keepers. He alluded to the nesting 

 habits and changes of plumage, and also the habit of the birds in the 

 winter congregating in large flocks, especially at night, and, if disti rbed, 

 rising with a babel of cries. He next touched on the shelduck, or burrow 

 duck, and after describing its peculiar preference for nesting 9 to 15 feet 

 down a rabbit burrow, referred to its many characteristics, and to the winter 

 habit of seeking the open water outside the harbour in the daytime. He then 

 dealt with the heronry at Arne, and after referring to the structure of the nest 

 and gregarous habits of the birds dwelt on the terrible destruction wrought by 

 it amongst the small fish in the harbour, and remarked that a drastic thinning 

 out of the number of herons in and about the harbour was badly needed. He 

 then remarked on the redshank, the ringed plover, and the common plover, 

 and quoted an instance of the young of the latter a few days' old swimming 

 from the Green Island to the mainland at Ower. Mr. Curtis remarked that 

 the oyster catcher had, by reason of persecution, somewhat changed its 

 nesting habits, now seeking fallow fields near the harbour, in preference to 

 laying its eggs on the bare beach. He n'.so said the bird is not strictly a 

 resident, since it leaves the harbour for a month or six weeks in the winter. 

 After a reference to the stockdove, he recalled the discovery by the late Mr. 

 J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, a former President of the Field Club, of the fact that 

 the curlew bred on the edges of the harbour, and stated that probably not 

 more than 12 to 16 pairs bred in the vicinity, but that the number was largely 

 increased by migrants in the winter. He stated that other birds bred on the 

 shore, but not in sufficient numbers to be characteristic. Of the non-breeding 



